What else could we Play it Loud?

Monday, 23 March 2015 04:22

JaidynReiman

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Hello everyone, its JaidynReiman. For the longest time I’ve been wanting to just chat about games, talk about the latest news and speculate on upcoming releases. I can do the audio recording portion just fine, usually, the problem I always have is adding visual to my videos. Video editing takes a long time for me to handle, whether I’m adding footage or just basic images. I tried to use a program called Lightworks, but when I started working with HD recorded footage, everything just crashed.

I bought a suite that was on sale called AVS4You, it was recommended by a person I am watching on Youtube. I don’t remember exactly who it was, but every time I try using HD footage in this it just crashes. I even attempted to do serious cleanup on my PC and still the same issues. Other applications in the suite work fine, so I don’t regret buying it, but AVS Video Editor itself may not be something I can use, so I’ll have to keep looking around or even consider getting the full version of Lightworks.

In any case, even if it wasn’t for this issue, the editing portion is still time-consuming for me, so I’m just cutting the video part out all-together. My only presence online for multimedia currently is Youtube, but I’ll likely create a Soundcloud account soon.

These will essentially be podcasts, but won’t be a set length. I’ll talk about the subject and provide my thoughts on it, then I’ll also post separate videos, one for a Game Review and another for a Character Overview of characters I like. Enough of introductions, let’s get to the topic at hand.

Donkey Kong Hype

Naturally, as you probably know if you’ve watched my videos in the past, I’m a huge Donkey Kong Country fan. Over the past year due to all of the Smash Bros. discussion and speculation and the release of DKC: Tropical Freeze, I’ve greatly renewed my interest in the Donkey Kong franchise. I replayed all of the original DKC games twice, and still plan to do the Gameboy Advance remakes and the Donkey Kong Land games.

In addition, about a month ago I played Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze every chance I got during my free time and I 200%’d the game in just over a week with all puzzle pieces, figurines, and all blue KONG letters. Even more recently we finally got Donkey Kong Country 1-3 and Donkey Kong Land 1-3 on the Wii U and 3DS eShops, respectively, in North America. Now, the question is, what could be in store for Donkey Kong in the future?

Retro Studios and Camelot Software Planning

Retro Studios have been working on a new game since Tropical Freeze finished. Odds are its not DK related, but what are they working on? Another interesting thing came up recently. Nintendo announced that they have plenty more 3DS remakes coming this year, and the biggest N64 title that has not been seen in a while, and NEEDS a remake, is Donkey Kong 64. I heard an interesting tidbit on Chad McCanna and Hyle Russell’s Kongversation with DK Vine as well, where they mentioned that in 2010 Camelot Software Planning expressed interest in doing a new 3D Donkey Kong game.

Camelot, like with Retro, are probably working on a game right now. The last game Camelot made was Mario Golf: World Tour last year, released right before E3. Odds are, they started a game as soon as that one finished. Camelot’s 20th anniversary as an independent company is coming up as well, and currently, there’s only a select number of things they could be working on. They’ve already done the Mario Golf and Tennis games on 3DS, so if they don’t do anything new, that leaves only Golden Sun. They cannot work on HD games, either.

Maybe they could actually be working on a 3D Donkey Kong game for 3DS? Or, perhaps, they could be doing DK64 3D to release later this year, and a new DK 3D game as a followup in a year or two. Donkey Kong 64 3D likely would be an easier project that could get done within a year, since the existing assets already exist and they’d just need to port it to 3DS and make some improvements. Then they’d have the engine good to go for a new 3D DK game.

Nintendo’s Plans

Retro Studios is still a question, though. Iwata indicated he felt that Retro could possibly work on two games now. So its possible that in addition to a new game, they could work on an additional Donkey Kong game as well. They’re definitely planning some sort of announcement. Retro joined Twitter recently for no explainable reason, and we know they’re working on a new project. There is the question of a potential DK64 3D as well, and another question is why Nintendo of America has not released Donkey Kong Country 1-3 and Donkey Kong Land 1-3 on Virtual Console yet. Er, well, nevermind about that, they finally did release DKC1-3 and DKL1-3 in NA.

Nintendo of America didn’t even put up Donkey Kong Country Returns as a Wii game download, either. In addition, they’re still missing Golden Sun: The Lost Age, while all other territories have gotten them. Yet another announcement was made in February that the entire first season of the Donkey Kong Country cartoon is being released on DVD. Also, Iwata made another announcement with plans to produce more spinoff games for major Nintendo franchises that often only get a game every few years.

There’s so many odd things going on with the Donkey Kong franchise right now, and Nintendo has big plans for a lot of their top franchises. Could Donkey Kong be one such franchise? I fully think so, but keep in mind, these are just me reviewing a variety of different things and speculating on what could be in the works, and it could be nothing. But its something to think about.

Diddy Kong Racing U Rumors?

Naturally, there’s the big rumor that’s been going down for quite some time. I only heard about the Diddy Kong Racing 2 rumors last year, but this rumor has been popping up for several years now as I’ve been reading, most of which indicate that Monster Games is developing a new Diddy Kong Racing game. Monster Games primarily produce racing titles as is. However, recently Monster have been producing ports of existing games, starting with Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, and now Xenoblade Chronicles 3D. They even helped out with Tropical Freeze.

Monster is a relatively small company. Its really strange that they haven’t produced a racing game in several years, so perhaps they were working on a Diddy Kong Racing at one point. The other unusual aspect here is the lack of any Donkey Kong characters in Mario Kart 8. Not even the DLC have any Mario Kart characters, and there’s no new DK tracks in any of the DLC or the main game either. All that exists for DK is the return of DK Jungle from Mario Kart 7, which was based on Returns 3D.

Why is this the case? Why isn’t Diddy Kong in Mario Kart 8, despite being in the prior two console Mario Kart games? In fact, Mario Kart Wii had Funky Kong as well. The DLC even adds Link and Animal Crossing characters, but Diddy Kong continues to remain absent. This, I think, is the biggest factor which may hint that Diddy Kong Racing really is in development. And yes, I’m aware of the Kevin Callahan rumors. I don’t think the guy actually knew anything, but he did make a good point.

Keep in mind, I’m not saying Monster Games is necessarily working on Diddy Kong Racing. Anyone in Nintendo’s arsenal could be developing it. I think its fairly likely that a Diddy Kong Racing game is in development mainly due to DK’s odd representation in Mario Kart 8 and how much a Diddy Kong Racing sequel has been rumored. As Monster is a company of only about 11-50 employees according to LinkedIn, they’re probably only working on Xenoblade Chronicles 3D right now. But they could have been developing it before.

Possible Titles

Last point for the night. Regardless of what is actually going on, what would be interesting to see in upcoming games? First off, in Returns 3, or DKC6, definitely the return of Animal Buddies and the Kremlings. One idea I had is that the first world is the Snomads ship armada, as they appear to be returning back to take DK Isle again. DK and Diddy go after the Snomads on Glacier Galleon and fight Frederik again in a slightly remixed boss style, but it turns out that the Snomads were tricked into this by the Kremlings, who have taken over DK Isle while the DK is away and kidnap all the Animal Buddies and other Kongs and shipped them off to the Northern Kremisphere.

The rest of the game will be saving the other Kongs and fighting K. Rool’s Kremling underlings. The Kremling underlings will mimic previous boss battles but with new twists. Kerozene can be based on Tiki Tong Terror, but done right. I like the idea of redesigned versions of Kludge and Kalypso from Barrel Blast, with Kludge being based on the original DKC King K. Rool battle and Kalypso being based on Baron K. Roolenstein, and then Klump being the penultimate boss and being based on Kaptain, easily the hardest classic DKC boss battle. Then King K. Rool himself will use elements of all his previous battles, all at once in an epic showdown.

For some spinoff game ideas, I like the idea of K. Rool stealing Wizpig’s staff and becoming Wizrool in a hypothetical Diddy Kong Racing U. I don’t know how the plotline for a DK64 2 could go, but that’s definitely one I’d like to see. Another possible game I’d be interested in is DK’s Jungle Warriors, a Dynasty Warriors spinoff in a similar vein as Hyrule Warriors. Instead of a strong attack, there’d be a jump button and aerial combos. Animal Buddies could also be usable as mounts, and all the classic Kongs would be playable, along with K. Rool and Klump, perhaps another Kremling or two, and Lord Frederik. This is also based on the fact that Techmo Koei said they were interested

Conclusion

That’s just my thoughts on the matter. What do you think? Post your questions in the comments section below and I’ll respond to as many of you as I can in next week’s episode, where I will discuss Zelda Wii U’s world map and how it could connect to other games. Thanks for listening, and if you liked this episode, please favorite and share this discussion, and subscribe to my channel (if you haven’t already). Have a good one, and make sure to Play it Loud.

P.S. Wouldn’t it be neat if Retro Studios did Golden Sun 4 and Camelot did DK64 2? Camelot is interested in doing a 3D DK game and Michael Kelbaugh previously worked on Golden Sun…

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2015 at 4:22 am and is filed under Discussions, General.
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